[1] The potentially significant role of the biogenic trace gas dimethylsulfide (DMS) in determining the Earth's radiation budget makes it necessary to accurately reproduce seawater DMS distribution and quantify its global flux across the sea/air interface. Following a threefold increase of data (from 15,000 to over 47,000) in the global surface ocean DMS database over the last decade, new global monthly climatologies of surface ocean DMS concentration and sea-to-air emission flux are presented as updates of those constructed 10 years ago. Interpolation/extrapolation techniques were applied to project the discrete concentration data onto a first guess field based on Longhurst's biogeographic provinces. Further objective analysis allowed us to obtain the final monthly maps. The new climatology projects DMS concentrations typically in the range of 1-7 nM, with higher levels occurring in the high latitudes, and with a general trend toward increasing concentration in summer. The increased size and distribution of the observations in the DMS database have produced in the new climatology substantially lower DMS concentrations in the polar latitudes and generally higher DMS concentrations in regions that were severely undersampled 10 years ago, such as the southern Indian Ocean. Using the new DMS concentration climatology in conjunction with state-of-the-art parameterizations for the sea/air gas transfer velocity and climatological wind fields, we estimate that 28.1 (17.6-34.4) Tg of sulfur are transferred from the oceans into the atmosphere annually in the form of DMS. This represents a global emission increase of 17% with respect to the equivalent calculation using the previous climatology. This new DMS climatology represents a valuable tool for atmospheric chemistry, climate, and Earth System models.Citation: Lana, A., et al. (2011), An updated climatology of surface dimethlysulfide concentrations and emission fluxes in the global ocean, Global Biogeochem. Cycles, 25, GB1004,
The North Atlantic Aerosols and Marine Ecosystems Study (NAAMES) is an interdisciplinary investigation to improve understanding of Earth's ocean ecosystem-aerosol-cloud system. Specific overarching science objectives for NAAMES are to (1) characterize plankton ecosystem properties during primary phases of the annual cycle and their dependence on environmental forcings, (2) determine how these phases interact to recreate each year the conditions for an annual plankton bloom, and (3) resolve how remote marine aerosols and boundary layer clouds are influenced by plankton ecosystems. Four NAAMES field campaigns were conducted in the western subarctic Atlantic between November 2015 and April 2018, with each campaign targeting specific Behrenfeld et al. NAAMES Overview seasonal events in the annual plankton cycle. A broad diversity of measurements were collected during each campaign, including ship, aircraft, autonomous float and drifter, and satellite observations. Here, we present an overview of NAAMES science motives, experimental design, and measurements. We then briefly describe conditions and accomplishments during each of the four field campaigns and provide information on how to access NAAMES data. The intent of this manuscript is to familiarize the broad scientific community with NAAMES and to provide a common reference overview of the project for upcoming publications.
[1] Simultaneous measurements of NH 3 in the atmosphere and NH 4 + in the ocean are presented from fieldwork spanning 10 years and 110 degrees of latitude, including the first such simultaneous measurements in the remote marine environment at >55°N. At high latitudes, fluxes were almost exclusively from air to sea, in contradiction with previous lower-latitude studies, which have suggested that the open oceans are predominantly sources of ammonia to the atmosphere. Sensitivity analysis demonstrates that the direction and magnitude of the ocean-atmosphere NH 3 exchange is highly dependent on water temperature. This temperature effect is sufficiently strong to outweigh the effects of variability in concentrations in seawater and atmosphere in many parts of the (open) ocean. This is highlighted in data from the Atlantic oligotrophic gyres, where fluxes were found to be predominantly out of the ocean despite extremely low dissolved ammonium concentrations in surface waters.
The impact of ocean ecosystems on marine boundary layer aerosols and clouds has been the subject of much research but remains uncertain. Five experiments were recently conducted in the western North Atlantic to assess if the seasonally recurring phytoplankton bloom affects aerosol properties. These experiments include the second Western Atlantic Climate Study and four North Atlantic Aerosols and Marine Ecosystem Study cruises. Measurements of unheated and heated number size distributions, cloud condensation nucleus (CCN) concentrations, and aerosol composition were used to identify primary and secondary aerosol components that could be related to the state of the bloom. Only periods of clean marine air, as defined by radon, particle number concentrations, aerosol light absorption coefficient, and back trajectories, were included in the analysis. Nonvolatile material was found to be prevalent in the Aitken mode size range after heating to 230°, likely due to downward mixing from the free troposphere. CCN concentrations at 0.1% supersaturation were best correlated (r2 = 0.73) with accumulation mode nss SO4=. Sea spray aerosol was only correlated with CCN during November when bloom accumulation had not yet occurred and dimethylsulfide concentrations were at a minimum. The fraction of CCN attributable to sea spray aerosol was less than 20% during March, May/June, and September, indicating the limited contribution of sea spray aerosol to the CCN population of the western North Atlantic atmosphere. The strongest link between the plankton bloom and aerosol and cloud properties appears to be due to biogenic non‐sea salt SO4=.
Abstract. Marine biogenic particle contributions to atmospheric aerosol concentrations are not well understood though they are important for determining cloud optical and cloud-nucleating properties. Here we examine the relationship between marine aerosol measurements (with satellites and model fields of ocean biology) and meteorological variables during the North Atlantic Aerosols and Marine Ecosystems Study (NAAMES). NAAMES consisted of four field campaigns between November 2015 and April 2018 that aligned with the four major phases of the annual phytoplankton bloom cycle. The FLEXible PARTicle (FLEXPART) Lagrangian particle dispersion model is used to spatiotemporally connect these variables to ship-based aerosol and dimethyl sulfide (DMS) observations. We find that correlations between some aerosol measurements with satellite-measured and modeled variables increase with increasing trajectory length, indicating that biological and meteorological processes over the air mass history are influential for measured particle properties and that using only spatially coincident data would miss correlative connections that are lagged in time. In particular, the marine non-refractory organic aerosol mass correlates with modeled marine net primary production when weighted by 5 d air mass trajectory residence time (r=0.62). This result indicates that non-refractory organic aerosol mass is influenced by biogenic volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions that are typically produced through bacterial degradation of dissolved organic matter, zooplankton grazing on marine phytoplankton, and as a by-product of photosynthesis by phytoplankton stocks during advection into the region. This is further supported by the correlation of non-refractory organic mass with 2 d residence-time-weighted chlorophyll a (r=0.39), a proxy for phytoplankton abundance, and 5 d residence-time-weighted downward shortwave forcing (r=0.58), a requirement for photosynthesis. In contrast, DMS (formed through biological processes in the seawater) and primary marine aerosol (PMA) concentrations showed better correlations with explanatory biological and meteorological variables weighted with shorter air mass residence times, which reflects their localized origin as primary emissions. Aerosol submicron number and mass negatively correlate with sea surface wind speed. The negative correlation is attributed to enhanced PMA concentrations under higher wind speed conditions. We hypothesized that the elevated total particle surface area associated with high PMA concentrations leads to enhanced rates of condensation of VOC oxidation products onto PMA. Given the high deposition velocity of PMA relative to submicron aerosol, PMA can limit the accumulation of secondary aerosol mass. This study provides observational evidence for connections between marine aerosols and underlying ocean biology through complex secondary formation processes, emphasizing the need to consider air mass history in future analyses.
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